PBS Newshour 5/19/2011
Excerpts from transcript
RAY SUAREZ (Newshour): Today, the first independent investigative report was released. It heavily criticized Massey's operation. The report was written by former Federal Mine Safety Chief Davitt McAteer.
----
HOWARD BERKES, National Public Radio: Well, that conclusion is not highly technical, but the report does contain an enormous amount of technical information that supports that conclusion.
And there's a lot in the report about the safety systems that failed at Upper Big Branch, which included the ventilation that's supposed to sweep away dangerous gases -- that wasn't working properly -- the process of neutralizing coal dust in the mine. Coal dust is highly explosive. If you have an ignition of methane, the methane that wasn't swept away, if you have an ignition of that methane, and then it ignites coal dust, that -- that is an accelerant.
And that is what fueled what wasn't just one explosion, but a series of explosions throughout the mine. There is a lot that is technical in the report. But, fundamentally -- you're right -- it was a basic failure to follow the most fundamental safety processes that had been known in coal mining for over 100 years.
----
RAY SUAREZ: Was there any conclusion formed about why the company was operating the mine this way? Did the report say Massey decided that production was a higher priority than the safety of the people who worked for them?
HOWARD BERKES: The report does suggest that.
But Davitt McAteer also talks about a safety culture there, in which the company believed in its own mythology that it put safety first. But in actuality the records of violations over the years and the kinds of things that were discovered in this investigation, the kinds of things that miners finally came out and talked publicly about clearly show that there was a much greater interest in production at this mine -- that's really a greater interest in profits -- than in the safety of the miners.
If these things were allowed to occur, then obviously, the safety of miners is not utmost. That is what this report concludes.
RAY SUAREZ: For all this identification of numerous and routine violations, where was the state of West Virginia? Where were the federal regulators who were supposed to be finding all these infractions?
HOWARD BERKES: I think that's one of the key questions.
The McAteer team says that the state didn't have enough inspectors, doesn't have the budget to adequately keep track of all the problems in all of the coal mines in West Virginia. They're underfunded and understaffed.
And the report also suggests that there is not the political will in this state to enforce safety in a rigorous way. And, as for the federal government, the Mine Safety and Health Administration is -- is criticized very strongly in this report for failing to pay attention to safety, not only at Upper Big Branch, but more broadly in coal mines across the country.
The agency has failed -- as the report points out and as we have reported, it has failed to use the toughest tools at its disposal to keep coal mine companies in line to make sure coal miners are safe. It has started to do that since April 5 of last year, when those 29 coal miners died. But it -- but it wasn't doing that before.
And when you ask the agency why it wasn't done, they will say: Well, the previous administration didn't do it. That's not our fault.
But they -- while they still have applied these tools now, they haven't been applying them in a way that suggests that this is going to be the way they will do business from now on.
Humm... "underfunded and understaffed" thanks to No-Regulation Republican's (state and federal)?
Republican policy in effect = lets have more funding CUTS (in the guise of deficit reduction) of ALL regulatory agencies so Big-Business can kill more workers in the name of increased profits.
No comments:
Post a Comment